For the past ten days, I've been scouring the city to find a push-tricycle for Tully (a plastic tricycle that also has a push-handle on the back so that I or Andrew or our ayi can push Tully on it until she can pedal herself).
Reason I need this oversized molded plastic item (despite the fact that I don't believe in molded plastic items...oversized or otherwise)?
You see, all the other 15-month-olds in our building have their own push-tricycles, and my rather assertive daughter has been trying to steal said push-trikes during playtime (in other words, she shoves the other little kiddo off his/her push-trike, squeals, hops on, and tries to peel out--without much success as her legs are still too short to reach the pedals; of course, the other parents and ayis have tried to be kind and let Tully take a turn on their kids' push-trikes, but this doesn't go over so well).
Mine, mine, mine!
Needless to say, finding one of these push-trikes was yet another exercise in shopping futility in China. Over a ten-day period, I went to three malls, two online secondhand shops, AND the the Pu'an Children's Market (oh, mercy!) with no luck (and as usual, ended up so frustrated that by the time I realized that alas, although I was in stores that SHOULD sell this type of molded-plastic item, they didn't, I was ready to hurl myself in the Huangpu River, but that would have required even more driving through traffic and crowds in ninety-degree heat).
Anyway yesterday Tully and I (and our devoted driver Mr. C) set off for the three-story Goodbaby store in People's Square. The flagship store, the Internet told me cheerily.
The flagship store had to have push-trikes, right?
We crawled through the Sunday afternoon Yanan Highway traffic and finally found ourselves on Xizang Zhong Road (along with the forty-six million other people on Xizang Zhong Road).
When we got to the address I'd printed (in Chinese) on a piece of paper, Mr. C shook his head. "Not here."
Impossible.
We looked around.
Nope. Not there.
I had a phone number.
"Call," I said.
He called.
Lots of Shanghainese hollered in the phone. Lots of Shanghainese hollered back.
"Okay, okay," Mr. C said, handing the paper back to me. "I know, I know."
And we drove on.
But then...on a small, non-commercialized street, we happened into bunches of small crowds of 100s of Chinese people. No Westerners. Each group was gathered around one or two central figures, and these folks were yakking...animatedly yakking like crazy. Hands were flying. Spit was flying. The street was packed with these groups, and not one would move out of our way...despite the fact that they were vulnerable human beings standing in the path of a large motorized vehicle capable of squashing them like bugs.
Ah, well. It was fascinating so I sat back and enjoyed the ride.
"What are they doing?" I asked Mr. C in Chinese.
After a lengthy back-and-forth (during which we slowly beeped our way through the crowds), I figured out that these were gupiao jiaoyisuos (groups of people who gather to share info about the Stock Exchange).
People gather on streets, sidewalks, and in parks for all kinds of reasons in China--dancing, English practice, tai chi, match-making, etc.--but this was my first exposure to folks gathered to discuss (quite animatedly) the stock exchange.
Amazing.
Anyway, we eventually got through the crowds and found the store. Then Tully and I had to scale a guardrail and struggle through a tangle of bamboo scaffolding, but we got to the flagship Goodbaby store, and I'm happy to report, Tully now has her very own molded plastic push-trike.
And gosh, it makes her happy.
Tully on a Trike! Aww, I love to see how happy she is -- good job there, mom!
Posted by: Becky & Brian Stelmack | May 26, 2009 at 11:15 PM